Police said the girl was waiting to leave for school shortly before 7:30 a.m. when she heard a loud banging coming from the back deck of her house in the 700 block of Wesley Road.

The girl told police she saw a man tampering with the back door, so she ran to a neighbor's house. That neighbor, Sarah Kelner, said the girl came across the yard and got her attention.

"She was as pale as a ghost and shaking, saying someone was breaking in," said Kelner, who called 911 and put her frightened neighbor on the phone.

"She did all the right things. She called 911. She got to a safe place," Anne Arundel County police spokesman Justin Mulcahy said.

Officers who were called to the scene said they found the man, identified as Dannyell Darby, 46, of Millersville, leaving the backyard of the home with a backpack full of electronic devices from inside the house. Detectives said he also had a small hammer.

"Literally, the guy was coming from the side of the house trying to ride away on a bike," Kelner said. "I'm standing inside, and I look out my window, and he looks up from the bike, and the officer is at the end of the driveway. The officer says, 'Where are you going?' And I believe he said, 'Home.'"

Investigators said Darby used the hammer to break the glass out of the back door of the girl's home. He then rummaged through several rooms in the house, taking loose change and items from a coin collection, as well as the electronics.

Darby was arrested and charged with three counts of burglary, theft over $1,000 and destruction of property.

"We don't have any indication, at this point, that he was targeting the child, more so than the residence itself it appears, based on the morning hours. (It is) certainly any parent's nightmare when talking about 7:30 in the morning when a child is getting ready to go to school," Mulcahy said.

Neighbors said Darby is well-known along Wesley Road.

"He'll cut your lawn, waxes our cars and stuff like that because he used to live next door to us about eight years ago," resident Jeffrey Williams said.

Neighbors said many times he has done work inside the home he is suspected of burglarizing.

"I would never give it a thought that he robbed them because he always brought that black bag with him," resident Jackie Lhotsky said.

According to charging documents, police think Darby also used a screwdriver to break into the home.

The documents showed Darby has been found guilty on various charges, including theft, from 1996 to 2008.